Dolby Atmos: Freeing Sound from Channels

When Dolby Atmos was first demonstrated in the fall last year, we were amazed at the improvement in sound. The demos we heard were all (of course) processed for Dolby Atmos. Fast forward a few months and Audio Advice has now installed lots of Dolby Atmos theaters for lucky clients. To say they like it would be a huge understatement!

One big learning has been this: not only do Dolby Atmos mixed movies sound fantastic, the Dolby circuitry converts a normal soundtrack into one that takes advantage of the Atmos speakers. The result is an big improvement in sound on all of your movies. (If Dolby Atmos is new to you, we invite you to read my earlier post here .)

Here are a few comments from our clients who recently had Atmos theaters installed:

“Adding ATMOS to our setup has made a significant difference in the movie watching experience. While I expected it to make a difference for ATMOS encoded soundtracks, what has been a pleasant surprise is what a difference Dolby Surround Upmixing makes on non-ATMOS encoded soundtracks. While this certainly varies a bit from one soundtrack to the next, it is truly impressive how it improves the soundfield and experience on older movies.”

“Wow! This is incredible.”

“I never knew my regular movies could sound so good, plus the Atmos ones are just amazing.”

As the Dolby Atmos Home Theater pagesays: “Dolby Atmos… frees sound from channels. It’s the first cinematic audio format in which sounds exist as individual entities, called audio objects. In Dolby Atmos, any sound—the helicopter, a car screeching around a corner, a melodic bird call—can exist as an independent audio object, free of channel restrictions. They can be precisely placed and moved anywhere in your room, including overhead, to flow above and around you in three-dimensional space.”

We have an Atmos demo theater set up for you to experience in our Charlotte showroom and we should have the Raleigh theater completed very soon. You can call us directly to set up at demo in Charlotte right now at (704) 821-4510 and to contact us in Raleigh at (919) 881-2005. Email us directly at [email protected]